


You can't surprise me

by disgraceful



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Book: First Test, Book: Lady Knight, Book: Page, Book: Squire, Corus (Tortall), Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Series: Protector of the Small, Tamora Pierce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-29 21:29:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21416965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disgraceful/pseuds/disgraceful
Summary: Lord Wyldon of Cavall has been training pages and squires for years, hes sure hes seen it all.
Relationships: Keladry of Mindelan & Nealan of Queenscove, Keladry of Mindelan & Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak, Keladry of Mindelan & Wyldon of Cavall
Comments: 13
Kudos: 158
Collections: Tamora Pierce





	You can't surprise me

Lord Wyldon had found in his years as training master that few things that the pages did truly surprised him anymore, he had been a page himself and knew many of the typical pranks first hand. Keladry of Mindelan was a surprise though. When her parents had written that she desired to start knight training he had been angry that any parents would allow their daughter to put herself through the ordeals of page training let alone knighthood. 

He wasn’t surprised that the king allowed the girl to train as a page, though he was mildly surprised he agreed to give page Keladry a probationary period. He struggled to mask his surprise when a girl a whole hand taller than his own ten-year old daughter walked into his office with a puffy black eye. He got the story out of her father later when he caught him on his way back to his carriage, fighting a spidren with river rocks was plain foolish, brave but foolish. 

She had shown up in his office in breeches and he expected that as a page she would expect to wear only breeches, but she came out of her rooms in a dress, interrupted his punishing of Queenscove and did it all with a blank expression on her face. In staff practice she had broken the practice rhythm to send Joren, one of his best pages, sliding across the floor. He heard from the other teachers later that she had nearly thrown the Shang horse.

He had started to believe that the girl might truly be infallible until they went for a run on the walls. He had watched her entire body freeze in a way he hadn’t imagine Keladry could. He had to pry her fingers off the stone, he could hear the boys snickering in the background but Wlydon would deal with them later. For the rest of the year any punishment she earned he found her heights to work on, he could see she was talented, and this was something she could beat just like she did every other obstacle he threw at her. 

He was surprised on the year end trip to hear her speak like a hardened warrior, complaining could mask the sounds of an ambush. The Shang horse praising Keladry’s mother was a new facet he hadn’t expected. He knew she had trained on the islands but hadn’t thought about why their family might have been so accepted. She handled herself well on the spidren hunt, her sparrows leading the way, her emotions played over her face in a way they never had, but he didn't see much fear

He surprised himself almost more than anyone when he allowed her to stay. He hadn’t let up on her for a day, still called her probationary page and yet reading over his notes from the year he knew she belonged.

Finding out from Ida Bell that the girl was at the palace almost everyday for training over the summer was a shock for only a second, honesty what did he expect. Finding out that she had taken on a servant was less surprising than hearing from the other servants why. The girl had been attacked and that was why, they said, that Keladry took the girl on. In a few months she threw a man that grabbed her across the servants’ mess hall, Keladry was teaching her to defend herself he realized eyes wide when he got the report. 

The year went as he expected, he chose a section of woods that were supposed to be clear, it had been too close last year with the spidrens they needed every page they had to grown into knights. The birds raising the alarm as they fluttered into camp had him lurching to his feet. Keladry’s birds weren’t easily frightened he knew. Wyldon had called the pages to saddle up and rode out following birds of all things. 

He had told Keladry, once they had dealt with the remaining bandits that this is why combat was not for women, he ignored the glare Ida Bell threw his way. It was Owen that protested first though the others in the hunting party agreed that Keladry, the girl, was the one who had saved their lives. Questioning them later they stuck to their story, Keladrys was the only one that seemed to downplay her own involvement. Like a true commander. The though had popped into his head unbidden and unwanted.

When Keladry told the story to the king she mentioned that after living in the Yamani Islands you almost got used to surprises, he couldn’t stop a slight twitch in his eyebrows. Oh sure, Wyldon thought, you are the one used to surprises and I’m here still guessing your next move. 

His thought about her being a natural commander would prove to be a true one in following years however. he could hear the pages curing her new training drills but knowing that Keladry keeping her head was the only reason that they hadn’t lost seven pages that day scared him. He couldn’t help but notice she was always the last one to leave their lessons on combat tactics, she was only a third-year page and not even required to be there. 

In her third year she surprised him enough that all the pages saw it. He had been demanding that she hit the small black dot on the target shield of the jousting dummy when her lance shattered. It had shattered the year before and she had had no problems so when she took the next run and raised the point far to high before banging the lance on her mount’s ears, he thought she was simply being foolish. Hearing her ask to have the lance weighted felt like someone dumped cold water over him.

He flashed back to the first few weeks in her first year when she could barely even lift the lance as any other the boys could, the wood they selected was light. He had though it was simply a matter of her being weaker than the lads. Queenscoves quip about all her practice weapons being weighted brought him out of his stupor and he dismissed Keladry to go and deal with her lance.

Perhaps the most surprising thing had been when the doors to the examination room clicked shut and page Keladry wasn’t there. He could see Queenscove practically bouncing and he leapt for the door as soon as he was allowed to leave. Hearing the story tumble from the boy’s lips Wlydon didn’t feel surprised, he had told her that this girl was her responsibility. What he did feel was rage and fear. When they found Keladry, Ilane of Mindelan was right on their heels. Daine had beat them to Keladry and the palaces guards were working to keep dogs away from two men that Wyldon would bet his own head had a part in this.

Hearing that she would willing repeat the four years of page training didn’t surprise Wyldon, but it hit him hard how her probation had been unfair. Even Queenscove would never redo all four years without a fight and yet Keladry was standing before him, chin held high and gaze steady. Gods he needed the boys to be more like her. 

He was pleased that Goldenlake took her one as a squire, she would do well under him. He heard reports of what she did with The Own, the only one that surprised him was hearing that she had taken on a centaur by herself and won. That and the fact that now she was a surrogate mother to a griffin. 

Wyldon was surprised by how tall she had gotten the next time he saw her, with many of the squires she knew being out of the city Keladry didn’t take dinner in the hall with the other pages and squires. She practiced with The Kings Own and only stepped foot on the regular squire training yards when she and Goldenlake were tilting. His daughters had been tall he thought but Keladry would tower over them, she also had more muscle mass than most of the knights he knew. 

When she did dine in the mess hall it caused quite the disruption, not because of her directly but the woman that came looking for her. The Yamani lady would have all the pages distracted Wyldon thought with a sigh as Keladry bowed oddly to the woman. She seemed to know this woman despite no introduction, her brother who was his dining partner for the night had no idea who the woman was, or what was said once they stopped conversing in common. 

He heard from Goldenlake that Keladry would be practicing with the delicate looking woman in the queens practice courts. He looked on the next morning from afar with the Shang horse. “the men were saying she took down a centaur with a glaive” he said as they watched the long staffs clash, the blades gleaming. He though back again to the morning with Joren, he could see now that her hands were not incorrect but rather, she held the wrong weapon. 

Wyldon sat in the courts when Joren was sentenced, he felt that he should have been more surprised as to the culprit. He was surprised when Keladry didn’t leap over the railing of the when he insulted her maid, but he could see her clenching her hands so tightly he was worried she might actually break her own fingers. Hearing later that she had gotten the king and queen to agree to change the law was impressive but the storm in her eyes didn’t fade until long after the verdict. 

He didn’t see much of her on progress, the traveling gossip train kept him apprised of her wins in the jousting fields. One of his friends signed him up against her. “you’ll show her what real knights are made one” the man had said thumping him on his back and Wyldon read it in disbelief. Yes, a real honor it would be if he, a middle-aged knight with decades of experience unhorsed a second-year squire.

The day of the joust was muddy and grey. He did send her flying on the third pass, his arm was still tingling from the last pass. He had to go to a healing later an found out that while he might have won, she had fractured his arm. That weighted lance might have done her more good than he thought. Or perhaps it was practicing with Goldenlake.

He wasn’t surprised that the next time they jousted that he won again, but he was surprised she stayed in the saddle, he hadn’t finished a joist with his opponent unhorsed since he was a green knight. more surprising was the swelling of pride in his chest, she would show even his own friends what Keladry was made of. Another trip to the healer found another fractured arm, he was no longer training master though so implementing weighted lances would be up to HaMinch. 

Seeing the metal monster brought back from the fort The Own had made he was plain shocked and horrified. Knowing that Keladry had dealt the killing blow, had commanded the men that helped her settled his heart a bit. Knowing that she was probably one of the only people who could keep her head upon seeing such an abomination though did not bode well for the coming war. 

He was a proud as any of her teachers to see her walk out of the chamber. Unlike most of the new knights she did not stumble as she walked out though she looked pale and weak. Seeing her holding her shield high for the crowd he cheered with the rest. She truly was the best of any of his students. 

He knew she would hate him. She would hate this assignment and feel like he was wasting her talents. Any other knight though could not do it. She was the only one for the job. When he gave her command of the refugee camp was the only time she had ever questioned his orders. But he couldn’t begrudge her that one. He wasn’t surprised that she did it well. He was horrified to hear that they had been attacked by more of those metal monsters.

Wlydon was an idiot, he was the man who had trained her. He had been the one to make sure that Lord Turomot had allowed Keladry to take her examinations instead of redoing her page years. And yet here he was being told by the men he had left with Mindelan that she had run off. Gone to get her people back. Goldenlake was madder than he had ever seen the man, he had no doubts that is Mindelan failed to return the Goldenlake would personally take it out on him, The Kings Own would probably help. He knew Goldenlake would send men after Mindelan but to help her or bring her back he wasn’t sure. Wyldon couldn’t spare any men on what was surely a suicide mission.

Knowing she had run off hadn’t surprised him, realizing that his own squire had gone after her was jarring. She had this way about her, of rallying those around her and they would do anything for her, he had noticed it when she was a page and now it was even more glaring at the absence of many young knights.

When Merric returned to the Tortall side of the Vassa River he was shocked. He could see right away that Mindelan was not with them, she would have been at the front, leading her people home. Instead she was still behind enemy lines. A day latter all the metal machines dropped dead in the fields and villages they terrorized. The soldiers still broke open the head of those they could find but none of them rose again. 

When Mindelan crossed the Vassa, Wyldon and Goldenlake were waiting for them. He knew he had put her in charge of 700 people but seeing the children streaming off the rafts put into perspective just how many of those machines could have been coming for Tortall. Once all the children were off the rafts and safe, she dropped to her knees, resigned to Traitors hill. Gods he needed a hundred knights like her and yet he knew that there would never be another quite like Keladry of Mindelan. Looking at her as he pulled her to her feet, he was surprised to see a woman he saw as a daughter rather than just another knight under his command. 

After that he found Mindelan could almost never surprise him, mostly because he just refuses to guess what she might possibly do next. They only time she really surprised him was when, two years after the war was done, she sent him flying from the saddle.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :)


End file.
